Looking for opinions/brainstorm ideas on what my next step should be.Quick backstory; my first ownership was "house hacking" a duplex for a year (fha), purchased a SF for 9 years, sold my SF last year and purchased a patio home dirt cheap at 45k, invested 35k into remodel.Currently own the duplex with a 90k mortgage and worth around 200-210k and the SF patio home as my current primary with a 40k mortgage, worth around 220k.I haven't paid a lot of attention to real estate over the last 9 years, which was a huge mistake looking back and I need to freshen up on some of the research I did 9 years ago when purchasing my duplex.I figured I'd start here with opinions and work backwards.

Profit from a flip is consider active, ordinary income subject to "all taxes" such as self employment taxes and reported on SchC. 

And when you take money out of a 1031 exchange the IRS says you are always taking profit out first and not basis.Your accountant would have to be willing to uncapitalize those and then treat them as ordinary expenses which would probably involve an amended return to change the basis, the depreciation schedules, your net ordinary gain. 

If you want cash flow, seller financing is great, as long as you remember you're giving up the tax advantages (interest taxed as ordinary income) and any appreciation. 

Everything was made new inside and on the exterior we simply repaired deck and patio.

Rehab is likely 6 figures (open the layout, rehab pool, rehab kitchen, rehab bathrooms (3) converting one bathroom from 0.5 to 0.75), new and relocated HVAC, Digital locks, patio with deck accessible from Master BR, convert office to BR, convert large BR into 2 BR).  

It is easy to show that it is an ordinary, necessary and reasonable for investors.however, if you have no business(no rentals or no flips), then this item may potentially not be deductible.

We also added a small concrete slab to the backyard to create a space for the option to setup a patio table outside.

Many markets aten doing anything out of the ordinary.

I did do market research, but it was hard to compare as most of the apartments were much larger in living space, had a tiny backyard/patio, and did not have a personal driveway with a security gate.